James Wiseman missed the entire 2021-22 season with a meniscus injury, and there’s no doubt that this was unfortunate for him on many levels. Dealing with any injury can be tough, let alone one that sidelines that player for an entire season.
When speaking to Katie Heindl of Uproxx, James Wiseman opened up on the challenges of dealing with his injury. He revealed that at the very beginning of his injury, he was “crying a lot”, adding that he wishes things “happened differently”.
“When I first got injured, I was crying so hard I couldn’t even get to my mom’s apartment,” Wiseman recalls. “My mom had to carry me to her apartment. I was just crushed. Having a lot of nights where I was crying a lot, like a lot of times where I had thoughts like …” he trails off for a minute, eyes glancing through rain-flecked, floor-to-ceiling windows high up in a quiet room on the top floor of Chase Center. Outside, a dense cover of fog has rolled in with the morning, like clockwork, swallowing up the long freighters lolling in the Bay.
“I wish this happened differently,” he says quietly, gaze drawing back into focus.
There was plenty of physical pain from the meniscus tear Wiseman suffered in his right knee upon landing in that early April 2021 game, just the 39th in his first NBA season and the last he’d play for over a year. More came when his initial surgery went awry and with the corrective procedure that followed. After that, there was a stretch where he struggled to move around his apartment.
“It was difficult,” Wiseman remembers. “Even personally, like trying to go use the restroom, or get up, it was super difficult.”
There’s no question that getting injured at the start of their career can be tough for young players, especially players who need playing time to develop their raw skills, like James Wiseman.
James Wiseman Could Be An All-Star Someday
James Wiseman definitely still has a lot of potential, and perhaps we will see him become a star-level player in the league in the future. In fact, Klay Thompson once claimed that Wiseman is going to be a “perennial All-Star one day”, adding that he has “that kind of ability”.
I think James is going to be a perennial All-Star one day… James is hopefully going to extend this dynastic run for years to come because he has that kind of ability in him.
Thus far this season, James Wiseman has done well, averaging 11.0 PPG and 5.4 RPG in only 16.8 MPG through his first five games. He is also shooting 67.6% from the field in that time span, and perhaps we’ll see him get a bigger role in the future based on his stellar offensive play.
Hopefully, we see James Wiseman reach his potential going forward. He is an unbelievable talent, and he could potentially help the Warriors stay competitive for years to come.
